Rallying: Gronholm shows confidence of a champion

Marcus Gronholm, the world champion, is confident of asserting his dominance yet further after opening up a commanding lead at Rally Australia. Gronholm is determined not to ease off now the title is in the bag and he led by 29.5 seconds at the end of yesterday's stages.

The Finn, who leads the championship by a massive 33 points and clinched the title with two events remaining, was well clear of the Norwegian Petter Solberg (Subaru) and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ford), who were second and third respectively.

"I'm really pleased with how the day has gone," Gronholm said. "In Australia, it's often a problem to run first on the road because of the really loose gravel, but the heavy rain packed things down a lot and made it more or less the same for everyone.

"It was still difficult as there was a lot of standing water and mud in some places, but at least we had the same chance as the later guys and we've made the most of that.

"Tomorrow's likely to be another tough day, but we should have a good road position. There's a long way to go yet but I'm feeling quite confident already."

Britain's Richard Burns, was forced out of the rally on stage seven yesterday after suffering clutch problems with his Peugeot. "My clutch started to slip quite badly from the very start of the stage and I tried to keep going for as long as I could," he explained. "But, in the end, I just lost all drive and we couldn't go any further.

"Marcus was driving well today but these weren't my favourite stages. I was looking forward to fighting back tomorrow and it's a shame that won't be possible now."

Burns's withdrawal dealt a blow to his hopes of staying second in the championship, with his fellow Briton Colin McRae, who was running sixth in his penultimate rally for Ford, plus France's Gilles Panizzi and Sainz all within striking distance.

In fourth place, after the ninth stage that finished the day, was Finland's Harri Rovanpera who could theoretically draw level with the Scot.

Fifth was another Finn, Tommi Makinen, who has had a nightmare year ever since taking the Monte Carlo event that opened the season, collecting just nine points following the 10 he earned for that win.

A serious crash involving the Mitsubishi crew of François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup overshadowed the racing for some time. Their car was crumpled on stage seven and the organiser's medical helicopter and the intervention vehicle were sent to the scene.

The stage medical team passed him fit to return to Perth, but Grataloup was airlifted to hospital and was found to have suffered a fractured ankle, a fractured pelvis and bruising to his right lung.